Friday, July 16, 2010

We all want a lot of bang for our buck. If you're like me, your always open to a little hands on project if it will save you some money. That's exactly what we have for you today. Statement Boards!

Statement boards are a great way to cover a large space with something that will really stand out. It's also a lot less expensive than trying to cover the wall in art.

Here is a step by step:

1. Measure your space and draw a plan. You can even tape up pieces of paper in the sizes that you are going to make so that you can play with the layout and size and make sure it is going to look good.

2. Use 1x2's cut at a 45 deg. angle and attach one to the wall and one to the boards to attach the boards to the wall. You must attach them to the wall on the studs because the MDF is very heavy.

3. Pick out your material. You can use fabric, wallpaper or wallcovering. We used wallcovering.

4. Cut boards to the sizes that you measured in step one. We used MDF boards because they will not warp like plywood does.

5. Prime or seal your boards. We used primer. You must seal the MDF even if you do not it will cup or concave.

6. Cover the boards in your material. You can use a staple gun or glue, however we used wallpaper glue since we used vinyl covering as our cover. It is thick paper so some of the edges came up when we wrapped the board. If you want some of the boards to be magnetic like ours, you have to have sheet metal cut to the size and glued to the boards. It is not a simple process because the glue has to be able to adhere to the sheet metal and it stinks! Make sure to glue outdoors or hire a cabinet maker and have him make the boards, like we did! Because you have metal on one side the other side has to be sealed with a wood sealer or painted with primer.

6. Attach 1x2 pieces that are cut at the 45 to the back of each board. We added them at top and bottom so that we could rotate our boards like a puzzle and change the configuration.

7. Hang your boards and play with the arrangement to get the look you want!

8. Enjoy your creation!

I also wanted to post pictures of the concept boards that we received! Congratulations to Claire and Jessica for submitting your boards and being featured on Studio B Creative Juice!